This invention relates in general to the field of telecommunications, and more particularly to a system and method for identifying an unidentified caller.
Many organizations wish to identify persons that call the organization to request information or some other form of assistance. It is often desirable for organizations to identify such callers for security, billing, record keeping, or other purposes. For example, a customer service representative for a mail order sales organization might identify a caller to verify the caller""s authority to receive information concerning an order placed with the organization.
As organizations become larger and more complex to serve a variety of customer and information requirements, organizations may desire to identify callers using a variety of techniques. A known technique for identifying a caller receives a telephone number associated with an incoming call and compares the number with previously stored information to identify the caller associated with the incoming call. These techniques may be unsatisfactory if the caller is calling from a telephone, extension, or location having a telephone number that is different than the number for which there is previously stored information. Other techniques may even compare a spoken word or phrase identifying the caller with a stored voice print to verify an identification made as result of personal interaction with the caller. Although these techniques may be acceptable to verify the identity of an identified caller, these techniques do not identify an unidentified caller out of a universe of known callers. Furthermore, techniques that require personal interaction with the caller to generate information for comparison with stored identification information are often relatively inefficient and costly.
In accordance with the present invention, the disadvantages and problems associated with systems and methods for identifying unidentified callers have been substantially reduced or eliminated.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a system for identifying an unidentified caller includes a database containing utterance data corresponding to a known caller. A data communications system coupled to the database receives utterance information corresponding to the unidentified caller and compares the utterance information with the utterance data to identify the unidentified caller as the known caller. In a more particular embodiment, the data communications system associates the utterance information with a recorded message.
Important technical advantages of the present invention include providing a system and method for identifying an unidentified caller that not only verifies the identify of the unidentified caller, but also identifies the unidentified caller from a universe of known callers. The present invention identifies the unidentified caller regardless of the location, switching system, trunk line, or telephone number associated with the caller, and may be used in a variety of contexts, including customer service, order processing, account access, voice messaging, and other suitable applications. In addition, the present invention may improve the efficiency of the caller identification process by reducing or eliminating the personal interaction between callers and organization representatives that might otherwise be required. Furthermore, the present invention may be self-learning, such that the likelihood of identifying a particular unidentified caller may increase each time the caller interacts with the system. Moreover, the present invention may automatically provide identity, order, banking, purchase, account, or other stored information concerning a particular known caller to a representative in response to identifying the unidentified caller as the known caller, further increasing the efficiency of the organization""s interaction with the caller.